Running is a Gift, Never Take it For Granted!

I will never take my ability to run for granted. Funny how easy it is to forget about those three dark and dreary years – all that time and energy and money spent on physical therapy, massages, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and surgery after surgery after surgery. Not to mention all that pain and discomfort and the endless missing out of all the things you truly love to do. But yet, I’m still grateful for every step I am able to comfortably run!

This past weekend I ran an undercover, super secret yet not so secret trail marathon on the trails behind my home. I made the decision to run it the day before and I had a blast! The idea that I could just go out and run a marathon is still unfathomable to me, but now it is my reality. How absolutely crazy is that?!? Aren’t marathons supposed to be big deal?

To say I’m absolutely thrilled with how things turned out for me is an understatement, but it wasn’t easy and I cried A LOT! I recently listened to a an interview with Lauren Fleshman on Chasing Your Dreams and Building Mental Strength where she talked about her own battle with serious injury including flying to Sweden for surgery and it stirred many emotions in me. I am so happy I didn’t give in, although I wanted to so many times, and I went from never thinking I would be able to run again to now being signed up for my first hundred miler – OMG!

Here’s the racap of my FAI battle, which I happily won!!! I hope my little story can give a little hope to those struggling with similar FAI issues to keep up the clamshells and endless hip flexor stretching and to not give up on running or skiing or whatever it is that you like to do until you are truly ready to move onto something else. Believe or not, there is more to life than hips, running, and glute exercises 🙂

To quote Lauren Fleshman, “There will be relief in knowing you tried everything… give yourself a chance.”

Not many things in life can compare to the joy I feel when I float along the trails with my puppy Roo. My BF and Roo paced me the last five miles of this past weekend’s marathon and I can’t think of a time I had more fun running. I felt good and had a blast. Running is a gift I was thankfully given again and I will do my best to never take it for granted.

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I found your blog after googling, “running after FAI surgery”. Let me just say, this makes me feel so much better and takes a little weight off of my chest after reading ALL of your updates. I am 17 and scheduled for my first FAI surgery on June 14, 2016 (not sure about the second one yet). I have struggled with stress fractures, lack of glute/hamstring/core “firing” because of the tears and impingments, tendonitis, strains, you name it all because of the FAI. I have been on and off running for about 6 years, with my longest span of healthy training/running being 7 months. My biggest fear, even after hearing of your success, is never being able to run, lift, hike, do yoga, etc after these surgeries and getting extremely out of shape because of the lengthy recovery process. I was on track to running cross country/track at a D1 university and now I am on their waitlist because of my health problems. I want more than anything to be able to make the team when I am fixed. Believing is the hardest part since it’s been so long. Thanks for this blog and it definitely gave me some hope.